The Land Sinks Into Mellow Blueness
by Alithea
Summary: A little piece concerning Relena and Zechs, and Relena's ability to keep a secret. Sequel to Meet Your New Road. F/F content.


**Title: The Land Sinks Into Mellow Blueness  
Rating: PG-13  
F/F content.  
Characters are not mine I am just borrowing.  
A/N: This is a sequel to Meet Your New Road.**

Relena Peacecraft-Darlain had finally come to terms with certain aspects of her life. One of the biggest being the hyphenating of her name so that she no longer felt guilty for not honoring her fathers. She had no connection to her real father except that she had tried in vain to reestablish the Sanq Kingdom, but she was fifteen and her heart and mind weren't exactly in the right place for it. As to the man that had raised her, she came to appreciate him far more once he was gone, and it bit at her insides that it should be so. He had done so much for her and she acted as if he had done nothing. She had only her brother really, and he was constantly absent. Only now he wasn't.

Zechs, or Millardo (she couldn't remember which he preferred), was standing in the foyer with a duffle bag at his feet. The remains of a black eye colored his face, but it was barely visible save a line of purple-black that insisted upon lingering. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him skeptically.

"Nice shiner." She said softly.

He nodded.

"Mission gone awry?"

He shook his head. "Sally Po, punched me."

Relena could not help but smile. "What did you do to her?"

"Why does everyone ask that?"

"It's hard to imagine Sally just hitting someone with out cause." She shook her head. "But maybe she would." She looked at the duffle bag and tried to gage how many days or weeks worth of clothing was contained within it. "You look terrible."

"Noin didn't want to see me."

She chuckled. "Do you blame her?"

"No, I just thought-"

"No one can wait that long." Relena walked towards the stairs. "Come on, the spare room is empty."

"You don't mind?"

"I can't have my brother sleeping in a hotel, can I?"

He arched an eyebrow and followed her up to the spare room. It was decorated in various shades of blue and wasn't too small. It even had its own bathroom. He set the bag down and turned to see his sister standing in the doorway.

"The cook was going to make some sort of pasta, unless you want to go out?"

He shook his head.

"Okay, I was just going to finish up some work." She turned and walked off, taking the stairs down to her home office.

****

Dinner was quiet and awkward, which was par for the course for the siblings. They hadn't been raised together, had little in common, and never knew how to speak to each other. Relena found herself doing most if not all of the trying, and wasn't even sure why Zechs had bothered to visit at all. Even with the rejection from Noin, it was odd, but stranger things had happened. Stranger things like keeping a photo of Heero and his kids on her desk, attending baptisms and birthday parties, and being perfectly fine with all of it.

It was not an easy place to get to by any means. She had fought with her own sense of pride, and jealousy, and especially her obsessive nature for a long time before she realized that there wasn't anything for her to do except grow up and accept reality for what it was. Heero was never going to love her the way she wanted him too. She was never going to be a princess or a queen again, and those things were okay. Those things were acceptable, because she could be Vice Foreign Minister and she could live the way she wanted. And the way she wanted to live was away from most of the people from the Gundam Wars. She didn't socialize with many people except on business occasions. She had a small group of friends outside of the political arena and that was enough. It saw her through.

She watched her brother as he helped to clear away the dishes from the table. He was being far too stoic and quiet. There were things he wanted to say, but couldn't. She understood the feeling but wasn't sure how to bridge the gap between them.

They retreated to the living room and Relena put on a movie. Half way through it she felt him watching her. She smiled over at him.

"What's on your mind?" She asked.

"You just grew up really well," he said.

"I think that could be debated," Relena replied. "I just learned when it was time to stop playing around at being a politician."

"Yes." He looked over at the movie. "You took that long sabbatical. Where did you go?"

"All over. I went to colonies. I traveled around on earth. I let myself be a tourist instead of being an attraction. It was...quite liberating." She looked at him and then asked, "What about you?"

"What?"

"As far as I know the only time you ever took a break from some form of soldiering is when you were missing."

Zechs shook his head. "No, I was soldiering even then."

"I see." She pulled her legs up and sat cross-legged on the couch. She rested her elbows on her knees and then sitting up she looked at Zechs and said, "Noin told you to come, didn't she?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"No." She shook her head and resumed her former posture. "I just think it's an interesting sign to see you take outside advice."

He bristled slightly at this and then heaved out a deep breath. "I used to take advice from...from Trieze. Well, I didn't always take it, but I did listen to him."

Relena nodded. "You need to be unafraid of finding someone else to listen to."

"Did you?"

"I stopped following everyone else's direction for me and learned to really make up my own opinions about things." She sat up again and readjusted her sitting position. "I took on others ideals as if they were my own, like they never existed outside of me. It was a mistake." She looked at the television and then at her brother. "What...Would our father...I mean...We both strayed, from his outlook. I always wonder-"

"Relena, I can't say I would really know his mind, but...He would be a fool not to be proud of your accomplishments." Zechs said, and felt relieved that the words didn't sound rehearsed, or insincere. He marveled slightly at his own belief in them.

She nodded. "Want to go out?"

"Where?"

She shrugged. "A club, or bar? I don't really drink but I like to dance. There are some quiet places around here that keep the paparazzi away."

"I'm fine staying in. If you want t-"

"No. No, this is good." She smiled. "I think we need this."

*****

Zechs, and it felt good to know that that was the name he had come to prefer, left after about a month. The relationship between he and Relena was definitely one that would remain on thin ice, but it was nice to know after so much time that there were at least a few stable spots where they could come together. She could see him always running though, and he wouldn't stop unless someone got up the nerve to catch him and tackle him. He had the constant burden of feeling like he was the cause of all ruin, when he was merely a man who had had a few turns of bad luck. Soldiering was his crutch and Relena wondered if anyone would ever get up the nerve to kick that crutch out from under him.

She was puzzling over this when someone knocked on her office door. She looked up and waved in Sally Po who was leaning in the doorway. She took a seat and smiled that typical Sally smile.

"What did you do to your brother?" Sally asked softly.

Relena took a deep breath, ill prepared for a personal conversation. "I just let him stay in my guest room and watched movies with him. Why?"

Sally shook her head. "He apologized."

"Are you quite sure it was my brother?"

Sally chuckled.

Relena shrugged. "I assure you it was nothing to do with me, though he was quite perplexed that everyone should immediately take your side in the matter."

Sally shut her good eye and shook her head. She stood up. "I just thought you'd appreciate knowing that you can be a good influence on him."

"A lot of responsibility to be sure."

Sally titled her head and crossed her arms over her chest. "What are you doing tonight?"

"Working."

"You should come out to this little place I know."

Relena smiled. "It's a nice offer, but no thank you."

"Right, just thought I'd give it a shot."

****

Lucrezia Noin stood in Relena's foyer with a suitcase. She felt as if she were part of some sort of cosmic joke. Except that she and Noin never had trouble with each other, save towards the end of the Sanq Kingdom. Mostly it was the ridiculous arguments of a teenager and her young adult guardian. Noin was a far better knight sometimes than Heero was, and there was only one other incident that tugged at uncomfortable for them. At least it tried.

"You missed my brother by about a month," Relena said as she began to walk up the stairs.

"I didn't want to see him." Noin said from behind her.

Relena stopped at the door to the spare room and turned around. "Really?"

"Really."

Relena opened the door to the room and Noin brushed past her setting her suitcase by the bed. She leaned into the doorframe and sighed.

"What is it with you two, anyway?"

Noin stepped forward and shrugged. "We want different things."

"Is that what it is?"

She turned and walked towards her room. Noin stood in the hall watching her go. Relena suddenly felt too generous, and then she opened the door to her room and saw the bouquet of flowers on her bed. She covered her eyes with her hand and let out a deep breath. She felt Noin place a hand on her shoulder.

"You know Sally asked me out this evening," Relena said, trying to remain stoic and then failed. "How ever did you manage to-" She turned around and looked into Noin's eyes. "If you tease me, the way…I'm not having you run off to the end of the galaxy, not again."

"I won't." Noin said.

"And," Relena said pulling Noin closer, "you won't be mercilessly counting the days-"

"Two years, Relena, exactly, and to the day." Noin wrapped her hands around Relena's waist. "I tried to convince myself you were a rebound fling. I think that's what you said it was."

"I said you were nothing more than a flight of fancy, actually." She felt her breath catch with the way Noin was staring her down. "I can't imagine this working," Relena whispered.

"You're afraid."

"I am, but mostly because- I'm not sure I can explain this to Zechs."

"You don't have to." Noin said.

"Oh?"

"He's not running from me, or trying to heal from me, even if that's what he says."

Relena shut her eyes. "I suppose you have an answer to everything."

"Not everything." Noin brushed a strand of hair from Relena's face. "Do you want to stay in, or go out?"

"Out," Relena said softly. "I'm quite sick of home cooked meals and zero scandal."

End.

A/N part 2: My friend Jilly-chan wrote some stories in this universe. A prequel: . , and an explanation of why Sally hit Zechs: . .


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